


Discovery

by tell_tale_heart



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Light Angst, M/M, Minor Injuries, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-25 21:17:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13221441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tell_tale_heart/pseuds/tell_tale_heart
Summary: Keith has avoided touching people around him--fearful of finding his soulmate, scared they would just leave him.





	Discovery

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RahDamon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RahDamon/gifts).



> I haven't posted anything in a long time! So it's with a great sense of satisfaction that I post this work for my giftee for the 2017 Voltron Secret Santa event!
> 
> Merry Christmas, RahDamon! I'm so happy to finally post this, though you posted my gift for me a while ago! When I saw you were my Secret Santa, I was thrilled. Happy New Year to you! I hope you like this fic, and I'm so sorry it took so long.

Keith Kogane considers himself to be a very good student. It comes easily for him, always has. There’s always been that fulfilling feeling of learning something new, one less mystery of the world unveiled. But right now . . . the topic being discussed by his psychology professor has him feeling like running for the hills.

“The development of soulmates in our modern era has no definite beginning. It is a phenomenon that is still being studied, and both scientists and philosophers alike have many theories about it.”

Dr. Morrison pauses in his lecture, studying the large collection of students in the lecture hall. His eyes rove over the rows, scanning leisurely from left to right, and Keith ducks his head before he can make eye contact with his professor, who he considers to be brilliant. To his relief, Dr. Morrison continues his charismatic lecture, his voice carrying easily across the room.

He goes on to talk about how, most times, individuals are drawn to their soulmate even if they haven’t discovered the fact that they belong together. That when two soulmates finally touch each other’s skin for the first time, it creates a tremendous vision state, where your minds are connected for a short period of time. Discovery, it is called. And you see some of the most vivid memories of your soulmate’s life. And from there on out, you will always feel a general sense of your soulmate’s emotional state. When they are sad, when they are happy. Even when they are hungry. 

Keith wants none of it.

When the lecture ends, he is one of the first out the doors, anxious to take his mind off of his class’s subject matter. Lunch with Shiro will do just the trick--he’s always pleasant and calming, and will easily sooth Keith’s troubled mind even if he doesn’t know exactly why the younger, broodier man is upset.

“What’s wrong?” Shiro asks, as soon as Keith approaches him. After ten years of being adopted into the Shirogane family, Shiro can pick up on Keith’s moods with ease. It is a blessing and a curse.

“It’s nothing.” Keith inclines his head towards the food court, and leads the way, his brother quiet beside him.

They chat easily over lunch, and Keith is just starting to feel comfortable again when Shiro asks: “So what happened in Psych class?”

Keith should have known better than to believe Shiro would have dropped the subject. He takes a slow sip of his soda, considering how to answer the question. Honesty, as always, is the best course with Shiro. He would spot a lie in an instant.

“Soulmates,” he mutters, setting his soda heavily back on the table.

“Ahhh.”

Keith detests the idea of soulmates. To be drawn to someone, connected to someone else’s mind, against his will? To have them see the things in Keith’s past that he will never talk about? NO. No thank you. Why find a soulmate and then have them leave him like everyone else in his life has already done? His own mother and father--no word on why he was put up for adoption. Childhood friends? Moved away to another state. The Shiroganes--beautiful, kind people to be sure--were always busy with their respective careers. Even Shiro, graduating from college in the spring, would be leaving the state to attend graduate school at an esteemed college. 

For Keith then, creating connections to people meant that they were often frayed or even broken at some future point. And he couldn’t handle it, the hurt was just too much. So he spends his days keeping his arms pulled in close to his body, often wearing long-sleeved shirts and fingerless gloves. Or hands pushed deep into the pockets of his jeans. Avoiding touching a random stranger, and the possibility of finding his soulmate amongst the mass of students at his college. He can’t risk it, he can’t let people close to him.

Because they always leave.

He even avoids thinking about the fact that he occasionally hears a humming of some familiar song in his head, and a flash of what feels like pure joy, when he walks around campus. It’s not his soulmate. Can’t be.

*********

 

The School of Science and Engineering is putting on an exhibition to display their fall semester projects, and Keith finds himself wandering from exhibit to exhibit, hanging on the fringes of the groups, listening in as each particular student explains what they have created, pride in their voice. He finds it fascinating, and he respects the time and effort each student has put into their project. It gives him inspiration to create things himself, to set aside insecurities and do what he is good at.

It has been an hour or so, and he finds himself at the end of one row, grateful to be alone at an exhibit. There’s a little sign that reads “Be back in 5 minutes,” so Keith takes his time in looking at what looks like a cruise ship with wind sails. He’s just beginning to read the display board next to it when he hears a familiar voice from behind him.

“Hunk! Look at this!”

The next moment flashes by too quickly for Keith to accurately recount what happens exactly. A slim arm appears in view, and it’s reaching forward quickly--perhaps to touch the model cruise ship? Keith isn’t sure, but the owner of this familiar voice should know better than to touch any of these projects. So he reaches out instinctively--

“Don’t touch--” he begins to say, but then his voice cuts out. Because he’s not sure where he is anymore.

He knows, he knows that he is still in the exhibit hall, surrounded by a good amount of people. But his mind is presented with a series of what appear to be memories? And he’s flooded with a warmth, with a happiness too strong to push away, and it’s nothing like he has ever felt before. He sees a little boy, playing with a dog, both of them dirty and wet from playing in a mud puddle. Even when the boy is chastised by a woman who must be his mother, the boy laughs and tries to give her a hug. That memory floats away but the next comes in, and this time the boy is a little older. He’s at some sort of family gathering, and there’s children everywhere, playing games and having fun. The boy has a snow cone in his hand, and he’s eating it slowly, careful not to get any juice on his face and savoring the flavor. That memory floats away and to the next, where the boy has grown up and seems to be a teenager. Keith recognizes him, but his mind is too occupied with the feeling of being cared for, being happy. Because it seems to be Christmas, and there’s presents everywhere, voices chipper and loud throughout the room. The teenager tears into a gift, and gets an assortment of what looks like facial creams and moisturizers. He hugs a girl next to him--a sister?--and then clamors his excitement over the gift.

Another memory starts to creep in, this time it’s of the university. And this looks familiar to Keith. It’s his Psychology lecture hall, and that looks like the back of his head--

Keith comes back to himself a bit, and then realizes with dawning horror what has happened. Because while he has perusing this guy’s memories--Lance, he realizes now, from a couple of classes he’s had with him--Keith has somehow let down his walls and allowed some of his own memories to come forth.

And they aren’t the happy sort that Lance keeps close. No, it was Keith by himself in his first foster home, clinging to a doll in his room. It was Keith getting pushed to the ground by some kids, because he was the only one without any friends. It was Keith being picked up from school by the Shiroganes after his first fist fight at high school.

A sense of dread rises quickly in him, and his breath comes fast. He lurches his arm away from Lance, who is looking at him with a sense of wonder, his blue eyes wide and mouth dropped open.

“It’s you,” Lance says in the quietest voice that Keith has ever heard from him. And Keith knows that Lance is handsome, is beautiful. He’s always distantly thought that but then always shut it down when his eyes lingered too long on his classmate. 

“I’m so glad,” Lance says, and his voice is firm. Resolute. “I’m so glad it’s you.” He reaches toward Keith, seemingly unaware of how Keith has started to panic. But he seems to get the message quick when Keith takes a step back, and then another, and then turns and flees.

“Keith?!”

Keith doesn’t turn back, tries not to acknowledge the fact that Lance knew his name. He weaves easily between people, having had so much practice avoiding touching other people. 

His heart is hammering by the time he makes it back to his dorm room and curls up on his bed. 

Lance.

Whatever he does from now on, he can’t let Lance close, even with how appealing he finds the other boy. For a lot of reasons.

One of them being that Lance is happy and bright, everything he will never be. He’ll see Keith for who he is, and leave him, just like everyone else.

******

 

The next couple of weeks are trying on Keith’s anxiety, to say the least. He’s calmed down some, sure, but it doesn’t lessen the tight feeling in his heart when he purposely goes to his Psychology lecture late and quickly takes a seat in the very last row. The first few times, it was as if his eyes had magnets and they were attached to Lance . . . somehow he would find the beautiful boy in the sea of people, how the first few lectures after their soulmate discovery he would see Lance look around the room--looking for Keith? But then after that, his shoulders would hunch as if in defeat. Then Lance’s friend--Hunk, Keith thought--would familiarly put his arm around Lance’s shoulders for a moment and give him a few pats. 

The gesture was friendly, to be sure. But it had Keith squirming in his seat, because somewhere inside of him, he wanted to be the one touching Lance and cheering him up. He could feel Lance’s unhappiness, so different than the sunny personality that usually reigned supreme. It had him feeling more than a bit guilty. And it was such a foreign feeling for Keith to feel someone else’s raw feelings, that he would have to force himself to look away by pinching himself. Yet he would still find his eyes roving over towards Lance during the 50 minute class.

Then Keith would keep an eye on his phone for the time, and quickly and efficiently pack up his belongings in the last couple minutes of class. He’d be the first out the door, effectively avoiding Lance, but feeling a heaviness of the heart by doing so.

******

Keith is studying diligently in the library one day, studying for a few of his finals coming up. It is part of his usual routine, with his highlighter on one side of his textbook and his large coffee on the other. He runs his hand absentmindedly through his hair, having lost track of how long he’s been sitting here. Maybe he could use a bite to eat?

But then someone takes a seat at his table, without invitation. It’s not exactly “his” table, sure, but it’s always kind of weird when someone does that when there’s plenty of other tables without occupants. And Keith already knows who it is, can feel Lance at such a close proximity. Like having a color in Keith’s mind, akin to a royal blue. And a feeling is there. Like a tentative hope?

“Hi.”

Keith looks over slowly, and Lance is sitting upright in his seat, backpack still on. His hands are hovering over the table, as if he is wary of spooking a wild animal. There’s a slow panic beginning to rumble in Keith’s veins, he can’t do this, he can’t do this . . . 

But Lance isn’t Keith’s soulmate for nothing.

“I was just wondering,” Lance begins, looking now at the table’s surface, “If you could help me with Psych.”

Keith frowns, not having expected that at all. The confusion disrails his anxiety, for the moment.

“Help with Psych?” he asks slowly, his body relaxing.

“Mmm. Yeah. See, I’m great with facts. And numbers. But I know there’s going to be an essay portion on our final, and it’s making me super nervous.”

Keith blinks. He hadn’t expected that. “But you’re like, second in our class.”

Lance smiles, his cheeks turning the slightest shade of red. “Second behind you.”

That makes Keith feel a little anxious again, but Lance seems to notice. For he continues speaking with, “Really though . . . I’m not trying to make you feel uncomfortable, or force you into anything or have expectations. I’m just, um, just hoping that you could help me study. Hunk has a part-time job and works usually when I’m studying. And I know you’re top of the class, so I thought you might have some strategies.”

Lance quits speaking a little short of breath, but looking hopeful. Maybe it’s his friendly face and unassuming demeanor . . . or maybe it’s the fact that they are soulmates and Keith feels drawn to him . . . but he finds that he doesn’t want to say no to Lance. And he is only feeling a little bit nervous. But it’s nothing compared to how he usually feels when he’s one-on-one with someone, and he wonders at that.

“Okay.” Keith takes a deep breath. “Sure. I was just, uh, looking over the topics to study for the exam. And I think that there’s a big chance there’ll be an exam question on cognition. Do you want to go over that?”

Lance’s megawatt smile at that answer is nearly blinding, and Keith can feel the waves of happiness pouring out of Lance, and it somehow makes him feel happy, too. 

“Yeah, I think that’s a great starting point.”

They spend the next couple of hours studying, and Keith goes over some outlining strategies for Lance to keep in mind for the exam. At one point, Lance unearths some Chex Mix from his bag and shares it with Keith. And somehow, it just feels so natural. Keith marvels at it, how they talk easily about their exam without any jitters or expectations. It’s like Lance knows how much of a struggle it is for Keith to let down his walls, and he’s content to sit on one side of it and speak to Keith through a small hole. Lance doesn’t try to hold his hand or make eyes at him or flirt. No, instead he’s thoughtful and smart and actually studies. Keith can see all the highlighted portions in his textbook, and the copious amounts of notes he’s taken from class. He feels a steady warm feeling learning these new things about Lance, and he somehow wants to learn more.

But he’s not ready, he knows that.

When they part ways, Lance doesn’t ask for his number, but he does ask if they can study again in a couple of days. Keith takes a moment to consider it before agreeing. And when Lance flashes that megawatt smile again, it does new things to Keith’s heart, like wiping the dust off of a long-hidden piece of delicate china.

“You were late today,” Shiro points out over lunch one day. “That’s not like you.”

“I was studying,” Keith said defensively. “I lost track of time.”

Shiro raises an eyebrow, waiting. He knows his brother very well, when he’s holding something back.

“I was studying,” Keith tries again, “ . . . with Lance.”

“Oh?” Shiro smiles, thoroughly enjoying this turn of events. “And who is Lance?”

Keith has studied with Lance three times now, and their topic of conversation has expanded a bit to music they like, and foods they enjoy, and their family and friends. The warm feeling between them feels like it has expanded even more, and when Keith is with Lance, he often wonders what he has to be scared about. It’s only when Lance leaves to go back to his dorm that all of those fears and anxieties come back, like a slap of reality to his face.

“Lance is . . .” How to even explain?? Keith searches helplessly for an adequate word. “A friend?”

“A friend,” Shiro responds flatly. Not even a question. “C’mon Keith, what’s going on here?”

Keith twirls his plastic fork around his fingers for a moment, but he finds that he’s not feeling super anxious discussing this, and not just because he’s with Shiro. Lance is easy to be around, so Keith isn’t uncomfortable talking about him. Not when Lance isn’t implying he’s seeking something more from their study hangouts.

“He’s my soulmate.”

Shiro’s jaw drops. “Your soulmate?” He shakes his head, as if to kick start his brain into believing what he’s just heard. “How . . . why didn’t you tell me you found your soulmate?”

Keith only has to look at Shiro to understand. “Ah, I see. You two aren’t together. Do you want to talk about it?”

A few week ago, Keith would have said no. But he finds that he wants to. So over the next hour, he fills his brother in on finding out Lance was his soulmate, and what has happened since then. And as usual, Shiro listens. Questions, when appropriate. But he doesn’t try to get Keith to think one way or the other. 

“Things happen when they happen,” Shiro says simply. “But we get to decide our destiny.”

Keith thinks about that for the rest of the night.

*******

It’s the last lecture before their Psych exam, and Keith takes a seat in one near the middle rows. He no longer comes in super late to try and avoid Lance, but has found that he has slowly been finding seats closer to his soulmate. Every lecture, Lance will turn and find him in the large hall and smile at him, before turning to the front of the room once more. It leaves a sweet ache in Keith’s heart, where once fear ran rampant.

But today is different. Lance isn’t in the lecture hall when Keith takes a seat, but Hunk is. He sees the bigger boy tapping his pencil on the table in front of him and looking, almost worriedly, at the empty seat beside him. The next few minutes pass before class, and still no Lance. 

Keith is worried.

So he can’t explain it, but he tentatively reaches out with his mind, trying to feel Lance out there. He’s never tried it before, for Lance is quite the emotional force and it’s always right there with what he’s feeling at any given time. It feels like a tug and a push at the same time, or more like swimming underwater. And then Keith feels it.

Pain.

“No,” Keith whispers, packing up his belongings without a second thought. And he sees Hunk standing, making his way up the aisle to leave the lecture hall, just as their professor comes in. Keith grabs his bag and follows, mind and heart focused on Lance. Where is he? Why is he in pain? What is happening to him?

“Hunk!” Keith yells, once they are out in the hallway, students milling about. The bigger boy turns around, worry clear in his eyes. “Lance. Where is he? What’s happened to him?”

Hunk takes a deep breath, but his eyes look sad. “His mom just texted me. He was hit by a car, on the way to class.”

Keith feels dizzy, like the world has swallowed him up. His mouth is dry, and panic is fast to rise in him. 

But--he can still feel the connection to Lance. All is not lost. It’s the only thing keeping a panic attack at bay. Because somehow, deep down, he would know if--if . . . He would just know. 

“I’m going to the hospital. Want to ride along?” Hunk asks, holding Keith at the shoulders. Keith comes back to himself, and feels a determination rise in himself, feeling stronger than he has in a long time. Lance needs him right now, and he will not fail him. He will not lose him.

“Yes.”

They drive there, and the ride is silent, each boy lost to their own thoughts. But once they park the car, they both run to the emergency room doors, out of breath by the time they make their way to the information desk.

“We’re here for Lance,” Keith finally manages. “Lance McClain.”

The nurse at the front desk looks at both of them with sympathy. “Only family is allowed back to see patients in the emergency room.”

“I’m his soulmate!” Keith says desperately. “Please, I need to see him.”

“Okay.” The nurse pats his hand. “Soulmates are allowed too. He’s in room 7A.”

Keith doesn’t look back at Hunk, walking swiftly past a nurse and then a doctor. He finds room 7A and the door is open. His heart is hammering still, but he doesn’t let that slow him down in the slightest, needing to see that Lance is okay, needing to tell him--

“Mom, it’s fine. It’s just my ankle. Ow. And my head.”

Keith rounds the corner of a curtain, and there is Lance, alive and enduring the attentions of his worried mother. He’s very much alive, with his ankle wrapped up and a large bandage around his head. He almost sags in relief against a chair but then the room goes silent. Both Lance and his mother stare at Keith, the former with a crooked smile on his face and his mother almost as if he were an alien.

“Keith,” Lance almost croons. “Hey.”

“You know this boy?” Lance’s mom questions, looking between the two boys.

“I’m his soulmate.”

The room goes silent again at his statement. Lance looks like he can’t believe what he’s heard, eyes still on Keith and mouth dropping open in shock. His mother is the first to recover.

“Oh my gosh! Lance, you didn’t tell me you found your soulmate! Look at him, he’s so cute!” She rushes forward, having forgotten her son for the moment, and engulfs Keith in a tight hug. He can’t breathe there for second or two but then he is released and Lance’s mother starts asking him questions.

“Mom,” Lance whines, “I have a headache. This can wait, okay?”

“I’m sorry,” she says with an arm still around Keith’s shoulders. “Um, I’ll just leave you two alone for a few minutes okay? Give you some time for some smooches.”

“Oh my god,” Lance says, letting his head drop into his hands. “Ow.”

Lance’s mom’s words don’t make Keith nervous,nor does her knowing smile as she passes him as she leaves. He still feels a tremendous sense of relief, almost floating, as he makes his way over to Lance’s side.

“How bad is it?” Keith says gently, placing one of his hands over Lance’s. And it just feels so right to touch his soulmate, and he knows now he never wants to stop.

Lance turns his hand over in Keith’s and links their fingers together, hope in his eyes as he looks at Keith. “I have a concussion. And a badly sprained ankle. And I feel sore all over. Dizzy kinda. But I should be okay in a few days.”

“What happened?” Keith sits down on the bed beside Lance, their legs dangling off the bed side-by-side.

“Ahhh, I was late leaving the dorm. So I took my bike and the brakes didn’t work or something--I haven’t ridden it in a while. And then, bam! Car hit the back of my bike and I fell.”

Keith squeezes Lance’s hand a little tighter at hearing that. “I was worried . . . I could feel that you were in pain.”

“Yeah?” Lance looks at Keith again, and Keith sees the questions there.

“Yeah. And it made me think . . . of how much I would miss you if--you know. How much I care about you. And--and how I want to get to know you more--”

Keith wonders if this is too fast, wonders is Lance doesn't even want this, but--

Lance leans over and presses his lips gently against Keith’s cheek. It’s sweet, and caring, but still respectful of Keith’s need for time. For Keith, it is perfection.

“I would like that.”


End file.
